This weekend, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder and Torrey DeVitto were in Paris for “Welcome to Mystic Falls 2”, a Vampire Diaries convention.

Paul and Ian took the time to tell us what made The Vampire Diaries such a success.

But before starting, Paul told us that Ian had an announcement to make:

“Paul and I are getting married”. Torrey, Paul’s wife in real life, laughed and added “It’s been a cover-up the whole time!”

Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder at the Monte Carlo festival - By Exposay.com

When we asked them about the reason of that success, both actors answered with a joke: “It’s mainly Paul.”, said Damon Salvatore‘s actor, “Remember how he used to take his clothes off every episode in season 1?”. More seriously, both actors know that the show took advantage of the Twilight series’ success. “I think we hit that wave and then I think we just sorta worked to get our own identity and forged our show based on that sort of popularity”, said Paul Wesley, aka Stefan Salvatore, “That’s why it’s maintained its viewership, we’ve been keeping this quality, and creating our own sort of niche”. “This whole vampire thing is such an amazing basis for storytelling”, added Ian Somerhalder, “Initially it was about the outsiders, these ostracised sorts of loners, and these two brothers who sort of (only) had each other in that weird way and are in love with the same girl. And now there’s so much going on…”. Ian continued saying that even the viewers profile changed: “The 18 to 49 year-old male demographic is growing exponentially. Our demographic [goes] from 10 to 60 years old so it’s a wide range.”

The Vampire Diaries books cover by Marina Rose

And when we asked them about the books vs the show, Paul and Ian admitted they’d known since the beginning that the show would not follow the books series. “I think the books were more like a skeleton, almost, and, all the muscles and tissues were put on the skeleton very differently from what L.J. Smith had envisioned. One of our producers said that the books were a basis of the story”, explained Somerhalder. Wesley added “I think once we developed viewers that liked the show because of the show, not because of the books, I think we felt the creative license to do whatever we needed to do”.

Finally, Paul, Ian and Torrey looked back on the season 3 finale

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The Vampire Diaries trio - Elena, Stefan and Damon - (c) The CW

The main question after the last episode is how the Salvatore Brothers’ dynamic is going to evolve now that Elena Gilbert is no longer human. Well, if she’s not a human anymore… “I think she is… but we don’t know”, told us Ian.

In any case, will Elena need the brothers the way she used to?

“We’re not any longer fighting over the innocent Elena. We’re fighting over… who knows, maybe we won’t be fighting over anything” answered Paul. “She’s got her own power to take care of herself now. She’s not gonna need you now”, added Torrey.

Ian has his own vision of season 4: “What I said in the beginning of season 2 was that Stefan and Damon should just go to Vegas and hit every strip-club that they can and just be brothers and enjoy it. I mean, what’s wrong with that ? ”

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Paul and Ian make a very funny duo. They can’t stop making fun of each other!